1. Field
Various features generally relate to data processing, and more particularly to methods, apparatuses, and systems that automatically generate and provide one or more group solutions to problems and/or projects handled by a group of individuals.
2. Background
Advances in social networking and mobile computing make it possible for many people to communicate and collaborate with each other in real time. In the recent past, much attention has been paid to engaging people with different levels of understanding, time availability, positions, and objectives in solving important day-to-day problems (e.g., managerial). These efforts have been most successfully applied to solving simple, binary, and/or easily quantifiable problems. More complex, qualitative problems, such as collaborative problems (i.e., problems that are tackled by groups of people) have benefited in a very limited degree from these advances.
Most systems that focus on collaborative problem solving typically rely on one of two methods. The first method strives to identify experts within the collaborative group who are most likely to answer the question correctly, and then it enables those experts to solve the problem. This method is not optimal because it leaves out potentially valuable inputs to the solution that may have been provided by others in the group who were not deemed to be experts. Alternatively, the second method queries the collaborative group to select or prioritize individual ideas proposed to solve the problem, for example, through voting and selecting individual ideas with the greatest number of votes. In both cases, the focus is on imposing constraints on user inputs (e.g., expert validation, voting) in order to obtain convergence on a single solution rather than finding a consensus solution that embodies and includes solution ideas from many different individuals of the collaborative group who have been allowed to express themselves essentially freely.
Thus, a platform that allows for incorporation of plurality of inputs from a plurality of users and produces one, two, three, four or more solutions reflecting a consensus from the various inputs is an improvement over existing platforms. The ability to produce such consensus solutions across an essentially unlimited number of users and inputs would be a powerful tool in many industries including but not limited to, market research or complex business decision making, where it is desirable to know the overall sentiment of any group and its members or users to a given problem or set of problems. For example, each individual of a group may possess a particular expertise in one aspect but does may have the expertise in all aspects of a problem. As such, providing a group solution that incorporates inputs from many individuals, users or experts of the group provides a collaborative solution for most problems. It is also desirable to provide a comprehensive and consensus solution proposed by members and users of the group rather than ranking and selecting individual ideas or inputs as the solution that may not produce a final set of selected ideas which would be consistent with each other.
Thus, there is a need for improved methods and systems that are capable of generating comprehensive solutions to group problems by analyzing and incorporating inputs submitted by individuals of any group.